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Counseling Center staff hosted a workshop on Nov. 6 for about 60 students, to help students acquire skills to maintain high grades in their classes.

Pam Midgett, director of the Counseling Center said, “We want to help them get ready for their finals so they can get the best grades they can get.”

At the workshop, students learned new study skills from faculty who have completed degrees and been through college.

Carolina Beltran, nursing freshman said, “These kinds of workshops help us see things from a new perspective and learn from older people who have done this before.”

Midgett began the lesson by describing the struggles students have, struggles that leave them exhausted of energy and with little motivation to study.

“I have trouble giving up the free time I have to study when I get done for the day, I just want to chill and do something relaxing,” Beltran said. “It’s easy to say you’re going to study, but it’s harder to make yourself actually do it.”

Zachery Martinez, nursing freshman, said students often struggle in classes that are outside their chosen field of study, because those subjects don’t interest them.

“It’s hard to study for classes that aren’t part of your major. You picked your major because it interests you, and a lot of these classes just don’t,” Martinez said.

Learning good study habits can be hard for freshman and sophomore who are discovering the new social aspects of college.

Cody Bahl, nursing junior, said “Things like this are really important for younger students to help prepare them to know what’s expected and how everything happens during finals week.”

Midgett said that it’s understandable when life circumstances interfere with a student’s ability to focus energy on their classes.

“It would be great if we could all be committed from the very beginning up to the very end, but we all know that we’re human beings and life gets in the way,” Midgett said. “Sometimes our efforts are great and sometimes we just have other things going on in life,”

Midgett discussed how easy it is to get behind in the first weeks of class, and that sometimes it isn’t too late to salvage grades. She said the last few weeks of the semester are important because students have time to choose to devote themselves to doing better.

“It [the workshop] is important because it makes us realize how serious it’s getting, with finals approaching,” Martinez said

By having students to raise their hands to questions regarding who can study at home, with music, sitting up or laying down, and with friends, Midgett showed how students learn differently.

Olivia Kulhanek, education freshman, said, “It’s really important to understand yourself and what works for you, so that you can study in the way that is most efficient to you personally.”

Midgett said when studying, people remember more of the first thing they read and the last thing they read than anything in the middle. Breaking up study time with short breaks helps increase the amount of things the brain remembers.

“We want to teach you guys skills that will help you learn how to study better, so it doesn’t have to be a painful thing,” Midgett said